"Oh, East is East, and West is West and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgement Seat" from The Ballad of East and West, by Rudyard Kipling. Rudyard Kipling was a British author and poet born in India in 1865 but raised with a thoroughly British education: a denizen of two disparate worlds. He interpreted India, the army and British imperialism, won a Nobel Prize in so doing, and therefore his writings most probably reflect a great degree of truth about the societies of east and west in Kipling's time. Quoting from Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, "this is a phrase (from the poem) which emphasizes the divergence of views on ethics and life in general between the Oriental and Western peoples". Does this dissimilarity, indicating an essential lack of resemblance between things in some respects comparable, exist between Egypt and America, today?
In this paper, the author hopes to encourage a questioning of what certain habits, customs and traditions mean to each of these two societies and how they may have originated. Why is there such a disparity in each society's approach to the perception of the human condition and in its reactions to the world around them? Discussion will be based upon the immense differences in the age and origin of each nation in their attachment to either spiritual or laic philosophy, geography and historical experience and their conception of time itself. Some amusing, it is hoped, examples of differing habits, customs, traditions are included.
From this discussion and the incidents set forth, can we hope to gain, at least, a deeper understanding of each other's ways of coping in an uncertain world? Can we attain empathy to our differing approaches in dealing with society's problems? Can we develop a certain flexibility in judgment of and indulgence for each other's foibles, in order to reach a more comfortable and peaceful relationship? The author would be pleased to have an unqualified "yes" in answer to the above; yes, it is all in the realm of the possible, and the "twain" can meet on common ground.